HONG KONG, March 30 -- Chief Executive of Hong Kong Special
Administrative Region (HKSAR) Donald Tsang defended the HKSAR government's plan
to build a new government headquarters at Tamar site while urging the
Legislative Council to give the project a start as early as possible.
During his representation of the HKSAR's priorities during the his remaining
tenure to the Legislative Council on Thursday afternoon, Tsang urged the council
to approve early funding proposals for the project since building the new
headquarters " will help ease the unemployment problem of local construction
workers."
Launching major infrastructure projects is an important initiative in
ensuring Hong Kong's prosperity, Tsang said, adding he hoped they would support
the funding proposal for building a new government headquarters at Tamar, an
opening ground with waterfront landscape by the Victoria Harbor, as soon as
possible.
"The Tamar development project is ready to be implemented," he said in the
passionate address. "It will not only resolve the issue of inadequate
accommodation and facilities for the government secretariat and the Legislative
Council, but will also provide more open space for the public in the heart of
the city."
In response to a suggestion that the former Kai Tak airport site might be a
better location than Tamar, the chief executive stressed there would be some
landmark projects there..
"We have looked at Tamar as a site for a long time," he explained, adding the
Executive Council, Legislative Council and judicial bodies of Hong Kong must be
joined together for the sake of efficiency.
The Legislative Council gave its approval to use Tamar as a new government
headquarters site three years ago but criticism and demands for more
improvements for the construction plans still continued.
The HKSAR has promised to lower the height of the new government headquarters
tower to 130 meters from 180 meters while narrowing the size for the two main
buildings to two hectares.
"We have discussed this development for a long time," Tsang said. "We should
be able to spend and not drag our feet anymore because thousands of construction
workers are waiting for work from the project."